Quailane

This was the only one I did start to finish while under COVID restrictions. Trumpeter 1/72 Late Production Tiger. I really hate the rubber tow cables, tracks, and track length. After finishing it I bought a Trumper 1/72 Mid Production Tiger and I saw that it had the track lengths and tow cables already molded in place in hard plastic. My trip to the US for two weeks at the end of January for Chinese New Year was extended to two months because everything was shut down back here in China. With lots of free time, at the beginning of March I final

There is the Heller 1:50 kit. I thought about making the Stampe SV-4 from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but that required a bit too much scratch building. There is apparently a 1/72 Azur kit, but these biplane trainers are already so small in 1/48 scale...

124 is Italeri, 211 is Zvezda, 232 is Dragon, and the unmarked one is Trumpeter. The most fun to build was Italeri. It is the simplest and goes teogether well and I really enjoyed modifying it and scratchbuilding with it. The overall best one is easily the Zvezda kit. It has the most detail and the best tracks I have ever seen in 1/72. The Dragon is the only one that out of the box can build either model of the tank, but it is very complicated and you need to figure out a lot of it yourself. The Trumpeter is the only one that lets you leave the armor plate off of the cannon and it was simple t

Done! I’ll take some better pictures tomorrow with my camera and sunlight. They look a lot better in real life than in the pictures from my phone!

I think I can finish all three over the next three evenings. Dragon needs its tracks. Zvezda and Dragon need the camouflage painted on, in two coats. All of them need their tools attached. All of them need a few decals. All of them need some basic weathering.

Oh man. I can't believe I haven't updated since the end of June. I was waiting to finish putting the tracks on all four tanks before updating again. First I did the Italeri. Very easy. Then I got to work on the Trumpeter. It really killed my spirit. I struggled with it for two weeks before giving up just before finishing the tracks on it. The problem is that the mold for the track sprue is machined incorrectly. It is easy to see what they wanted to do. It looks like it makes a lot of sense, would give a lot of freedom into how the links are placed, and is a smart way to mold the links. However

All of the tanks were primed. You can see them in the same order I posted them before. From left to right, Dragon, Italeri, Zvezda, and Trumpeter: Left to right, Trumpeter, Zezda, Italeri, and Dragon: The "zimmerit" on the Dragon doesn't look too hideous: Tonight I spent some time putting on the first coat of Dunkelgelb 1943 on all four tanks. Left to right, Dragon, Italeri, Zvezda, and Trumpeter: I also primed and painted the wheels: Italeri on the left, Trumpeter at the top, Dr

Very nice. I'm rooting for the Monogram kit. I've built that Pro-Modeler version before and have a second one I've started in my stash. I love how well it fits and goes together. Hard to believe it's from the 60's.

Unfortunately it is difficult for me to host the pictures and I don't have a lot of free time on the computer these days, so I have to do three updates at once. I got the four hulls ready for priming. I added some bits to the Italeri kit to bring it up to par. I just used spare pieces from the Dragon and Trumpeter kits. This includes the top hatch, gun mantlet, and lifting hooks. I also added the reinforcement plates between the hull and casemate. I ripped the casemate off to remove the original mounting for the cannon. I used superglue to hold it in place sticking out a bit further that it do

The following pictures are current as of a week ago. I have gotten more work done after these pictures and have finished the main bodies of all four tanks. I had lots of trouble uploading photos to Google since it is blocked in China. These tanks basically had two versions. The first version is the Ferdinand. Later the surviving tanks were modified and a name change to Elefant roughly coincides with the modification. The modifications from the Ferdinand to the Elefant were: 1. Commander's hatch upgraded to a cuppola with periscopes. 2. Machine gun added at the front of th

The week after I joined this group build, I didn't get a chance to work on these kits because I was busy with work and trying to finish up this 1/72 Trumpeter Late Tiger. These pictures are just to show my lack of skills and the standard that these Ferdinands and Elefants will be build to. This Tiger was the first German armor I have ever painted that wasn't a monotone scheme! With the Ferdinands and Elefants, I need to be careful to not let the washes darken the camouflage this much. I really hate rubber tracks and other rubber detail pieces, and those were the bane of this Trumpeter kit. I'm

Very nice. Interesting to see the differences between the two kits. By the looks of it I would prefer to build the Airfix kit. I really hate those kinds of big panel-line seams as present on the Hasegawa. Can't wait to see the next update!

I'm trying to host them from Google. Is it working now?

I've always liked the Ferdinand/ Elefant. I remember seeing one, in a very sad and sorry state (like all the other dozens of extremely rare and historically significant armored vehicles), at the US Army Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Unfortunately I lost all the film rolls I used there before even getting the film developed. I've never made a Ferdinand model before, but I've made the Italeri 1/35 Porsche Tiger I which shares the same chassis at the Ferdinand. Let's get started. The box art all looks eerily similar, and the boxes are all the same width and height. At l

I've been eyeing this group build since the beginning, but wasn't sure if I should pull the trigger. I have a few small projects winding down and found a few small and inexpensive kits that interested me. They arrived yesterday.

I don't think medal of honor recipients can really be called "winners" of the medal. How much is the stamp book?

My dad bought me and my brother Revell Snap-Tite 1/100 F-15's at the PX....

Plastic modeling is a really cheap hobby, all things considered. The cost to entry is extremely low. You can build models OOB to a high standard with minimal investiture. Model kits are cheap. Your tools will last practically forever. On a per-model basis, your consumables such as paints, masking tape, glue, etc are extremely cheap. Just like any other hobby, you can spend a ton on it. You can have a room in your house devoted to building models. You can order store display racks full of paints if you wish. You can buy all the fancy shiny modeling tools you want and start an airbrush collect

For me, consoles are fine for casual games and racing simulators, but I really can't play anything that involves aiming and shooting on a console. I simply cannot stand using a controller for that. Even with the help aiming the console version of the game gives you, it still feels really slow and imprecise.

Lovely. The canopy is very well done.

I'm going to the US next weekend, should I smuggle in a bunch of incandescent light bulbs?

I see metal landing gear and resin wheels on eBay all the time. Also squadron (I think it is them) makes vacuformed clear parts for the B-29 in two sets.

I've gotten burned quite a bit on eBay recently. Not just selling models, but other things as well. I live in China, so as you can imagine, everything is shipped internationally. Everything depends on the honesty and temperament of the buyer. Some people are real good sports, and others have gotten things for free while really screwing me over. I have shipped everything registered airmail, but in reality after it leaves the airport here, there is ever only tracking in the UK and US. On top of this, tracking only shows up after it has cleared customs and enters the normal domestic postal servi

In some situations, CFL's seem to work great, and in others they really suck. I have had them continuously burning out in the lamps above my desk, where incadescents seem to last forever.

I find it highly unlikely given all the measures that were taken to keep them secret at the Tonopah Test Range. Ferrying them to some random airfield in Germany seems like it would have seriously breached its secrecy.